Gen Z men think women's rights have gone far enough - Ipsos poll

[IwantToRetire]

For a sector that is often publicly funded, the equalities industry has had a relentless tendency to monopoly. Matters of gender, race and sexuality have dominated, the three great Equality Gods of the 20th century still leading the pack well into the 21st.

Monopolies break down because facts change (girls and young women now out-perform boys and young men throughout education), consumers shift behaviour and new distribution methods – in this case social media – fundamentally alter the route to market. Andrew Tate, Donald Trump and the “manosphere” have found willing audiences that feel failed by a system where real incomes are stagnant and growth non-existent.

The result is an equalities backlash which should raise red-flags all the way to Number 10.

Full article in the Telegraph at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/02/men-are-turning-against-womens-rights/

But can also be read in full at https://archive.is/tXlZX

(I think most recent surveys have shown this, so not sure why No 10 might take notice now. Nor does it ask why if the reason men are struggling is in the UK we have no growth, why is that women's fault and not politicians? )

I mean - men and women do have the same rights, by law. If they "went farther" that would imply that women would have more rights than men.

That's not the only way to interpret the question, but I think it's the most obvious and straightforward, so I am not that surprised by the results.

I'm not surprised - just annoyed by the questions and the way they're asked.
If we're doing better than boys at school and college, could it be because we ARE better?
Oops - shouldn't say that. Maybe it's because we're more committed and determined to do well.
In many things we are better.
I'm not afraid to say I'm a better driver than about 95% of men.
Or that about 95% of men could lift more slabs of stone at a time than me!

It’s a very loosely phrased question. Do they mean equality in terms of legal rights? In which case, (on paper and ignoring, for the moment, the de facto self ID of trans-IDing men), there is equality in this country.

Or are they asking about equity? Which brings the pay gap, sexual violence, domestic violence, detection and conviction rates for rape etc etc into the equation.

As TempestTost has already pointed out, I can see why they’d get the result they did because it’s way too open to interpretation.

'When it comes to giving women equal rights with men, things have gone far enough in my country'
Hmmmm.... interestingly-phrased statement.
Note that women are 'given' rights, not earned or won or entitled to.

And the phrase 'things have gone far enough' is just one step away from 'things have gone too far' aka 'political correctness gone mad'.

Put another way: 'We've given you all the rights you're getting, things have gone far enough.' doesn't sound very supportive, does it?😐

I agree, that is how I would understand the question as well. Women's rights have gone far enough because men and women have equal rights protected in law which previously they didn't have.

I would have interpreted the question in the same way as @TempestTost and @JasmineAllen - 'rights' meaning legal rights.

Equality will only be reached when equal numbers of women and men are at all levels of industry and commerce, government, academia etc, when equal numbers of men and women do the double shift (and get paid for it) and childcare (i.e. half of stay at home parents are men), when caring for the elderly is mandated as one of the aims of an economy which is geared to supporting families and individuals in clean and comfortable homes with social care amenities, educational amenities etc available to who all who need them, when the priorities for spending are educating the young and caring for the old, infirm and incapacitated, all citizens to have a long, useful and comfortable life, along with defence of the realm. In sum: when the economy is for the people and all of the people, not just a few. Then we might be getting somewhere.

If only...

I agree that our rights (in the west) have gone ‘far enough’ or at least they have on paper.

The problem is that those on-paper legal rights are still really hard to access, hence all the tribunals and judicial reviews to try and get actual single sex single sex spaces back.

See also: maternity rights - technically we have them but holy fuck is it hard to get some employers to actually adhere to them.

and obvs male VAWG is illegal but that doesn’t seem to stop it.

Still though, I wouldn’t be mad about someone answering that particular polling question in that particular way.

Turns out rights aren’t worth much without constant reinforcement by the governments that grant them.

It’s interesting that the percentage of women who agree with the statement is more or less the same for ALL generations of women but the men’s numbers go up the younger they get.

Whether that is because the younger men are getting ‘red pilled’ by MRAs online or not, I can only speculate - if it were only the Zs
I might be able to explain it away as ‘they’ve not witnessed shitty event X happen to their female partner/sister yet’ but the millennials are all 28-43 so hard to make that excuse for them.

Hey, us old gits are the least bad!

Whether that is because the younger men are getting ‘red pilled’ by MRAs online or not, I can only speculate

Got to be a factor, hasn't it?

Not sure if everyone has read the entire article (note to self never pick out a bit that makes a snazzy headline!) but it gives a bit more about some of the ideas.

But it is really strange that anyone would think that "rights" means you are then better at exams.

Or is this about lack of critical thinking eg, it is well known that in the past exam results were actually structured to favour boys.

Blaming girls who may just have worked harder to get better results has nothing to do with rights.

Unless in the back of the mind of these younger males, is that their rights, to automatically get ahead without having to really work is what they resent.

ie they resent having to compete with girls as equals.

And as said in OP women and girls do not control the economy. That's Government. Or again is it that men and boys think if there is shortages and cuts women should bear the brunt on them.

Of course, the problem is those who created the survey.

They could have got more interesting results instead of setting out to prove that young men are resentful of young women.

But women do not have equal rights in that the burden of reproduction that women bear penalises them throughout their life. The 'motherhood penalty' is never addressed. We don't need 24 hour childcare, nor subsidised nursery places, but perhaps the money to arrange our own childcare - given the state wants to pay this - rather than fund privately run nurseries. We also need career structures that do not mean giving birth and bringing up children means loss of promotion and pension rights. We also need a situation where men take their 50% share of the reproductive burden. No, they can't give birth or feed a baby, but they can do half the later required childcare and half the housework, these things not to penalise either sex in promotion and pension prospects. Until that is the case, no, women are not equally treated, they are treated like men, and we are not men and since there would be neither men nor women without women we need the economy and society to fully support us in our support in making society.

But none of this was about "equal rights".

If having equal rights means men having to face up to the fact that previously they were given preferrential treament, ie part of a social culture that discriminates against women, what it means people are saying if that men should continue to have the advantage that the patriarchy gives them.

Two thirds feel misogyny is problem in UK

This survey is more directly addressing the problem. ie the survey of the OP is about misogyny.

Almost two thirds of adults feel misogyny is a problem in the UK according to polling

Just over a quarter of men surveyed said they had challenged misogyny – a lower proportion than women (28% of men compared with 31% of women).

Of the 64% of UK adults who think misogyny is a problem, some three in ten consider it a serious one (32%).

The polling highlighted dangers felt by young women in society, with 41% of women aged 18 to 34 saying they avoided eye contact or limited their interactions with strangers in the past year while 37% shared their live locations with friends or family members when travelling alone (37%).

Four in 10 (42%) pretended to be on a call when walking on their own, while just over a quarter (27%) said they held a key between their fingers for safety.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/womens-institute-opinium-cambridge-b2708705.html

The survey hasn't yet been published but was carried out for the WI(!) by Opinium.